I’m working today on my presentation on Florance Norman, the Kewaneean who scouted for the Chicago Cubs in the 1930s. I’ll give it at the 27th Annual Baseball in Literature and Culture Conference at Ottawa University next month. (You can read my article about Florance by clicking here. It includes a story about Florance and Dizzy Dean, pictured below.)
Today I finally put together a timeline of newspaper stories about Florance discovering Don Conrads and arranging for a spring training tryout with the Cubs.
Lo and behold, it seems like Kewanee’s press didn’t give Florance her due until AFTER the Chicago press picked up on the story. (It’s also possible that the Cubs themselves never gave the press the full story.)
In any event, it seems there was a reluctance to give a “girl” credit for her prowess as a talent spotter.
Of course, at the time, there was only one woman scout in baseball, and she was part of a team with her husband. The next came along in 1946, the first full time woman scout, and then another 50 years or so passed before another woman took on fulltime scouting duties. That makes Florance’s story more amazing!
So glad we’ve moved past gender equality issues, eh?
